Roland Sound Canvas

New to MIDI in DOS games?

If you’re not familiar with how MIDI works in DOS games, read the overview in the MIDI section first — it explains how DOS games use MIDI and the difference between the Roland MT-32 family of devices and Roland Sound Canvas / General MIDI.

The Roland Sound Canvas SC-55, released in 1991, was a MIDI sound module that supported General MIDI (GM) and Roland’s GS extension to GM. It quickly became the de facto standard for DOS game music.

This distinction is important: General MIDI is a standard, not a sound module. It defines standardised instrument assignments so that General MIDI music can be played on different GM-compatible synthesizers. The SC-55 is one particular GM-compatible sound module, with its own samples, synthesis, and effects. As a result, different GM-compatible devices can produce noticeably different sounds from the same music.

For DOS games, the SC-55 is especially important because it was the hardware many composers used when writing and testing their music. If you want to hear General MIDI soundtracks using the SC-55’s characteristic sounds, Sound Canvas emulation is the appropriate choice.

DOSBox Staging emulates the SC-55 via the Nuked SC55 CLAP audio plugin (bundled with the release packages), providing sample-accurate playback of the actual SC-55 sound engine — as close to the real hardware as you can get without owning one.

For background on the General MIDI and GS standards, and help deciding which MIDI device to use for a particular game, see the Which MIDI device should I use? section.

Roland MT-32 is not General MIDI

Don’t confuse the Sound Canvas with the Roland MT-32. Although both are MIDI sound modules, the MT-32 is a programmable synthesiser with a very different sound engine, while the Sound Canvas supports General MIDI. Music written for one often sounds completely wrong on the other. See MT-32 vs General MIDI for details.

Notable games with Sound Canvas / General MIDI support

• Azrael’s Tear (1996
• Betrayal at Krondor (1993)
• Day of the Tentacle (1993)
• Descent (1995)
• Dig, The (1995)
• Discworld (1995)
• Doom (1993)
• Duke Nukem 3D (1996)
• Elder Scrolls: Arena, The (1994)
• Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall, The (1996)
• Full Throttle (1995)
• Gabriel Knight (1993)
• King’s Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow (1992)
• Legend of Kyrandia II: Hand of Fate, The
• Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out! (1993)
• Lords of the Realm (1994)
• Master of Magic (1985)
• Master of Orion (1993)
• Phantasmagoria (1995)
• Quest for Glory III: Wages of War (1992)
• Realms of Arkania: Star Trail (1994)
• Sam & Max Hit the Road (1993)
• Shadow Warrior (1997)
• Space Quest 6: Roger Wilco in the Spinal Frontier (1995)
• Space Quest V: The Next Mutation 1993)
• Star Wars: Dark Forces (1995)
• Star Wars: TIE Fighter (1994)
• Stonekeep (1995)
• System Shock (1994)
• Ultima VII (1992)
• Under a Killing Moon (1994)
• WarCraft II (1995)

Setting up the Sound Canvas ROM images

Warning

Emulating the Roland Sound Canvas requires the original ROM data from the hardware itself — the Sound Canvas MIDI device cannot function without these files. We can’t bundle these ROM files with our release packages due to copyright restrictions, so you’ll need to obtain and install them yourself.

Download the SC-55 ROM files from here, unpack the ZIP archive, then move the contents of the Nuked-SC55-Resources/ROMs/ folder into the soundcanvas-roms folder inside your DOSBox Staging configuration folder:

Platform	ROM folder
Windows	C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\DOSBox\soundcanvas-roms\
macOS	/Users/<USERNAME>/Library/Preferences/DOSBox/soundcanvas-roms/
Linux	$HOME/.config/dosbox/soundcanvas-roms/

By doing so, you will make these ROMs globally available for all games.

This is what the contents of soundcanvas-roms should look like:

soundcanvas-roms
├── SC-55-v1.10
│   ├── sc55_rom1.bin
│   ├── sc55_rom2.bin
│   ├── sc55_waverom1.bin
│   ├── sc55_waverom2.bin
│   └── sc55_waverom3.bin
├── SC-55-v1.20
│   ...
├── SC-55-v1.21
...

You can also set a custom ROM folder via the soundcanvas_rom_dir setting.

Now you can enable the Sound Canvas MIDI device in your config:

[midi]
mididevice = soundcanvas

Note

Sound Canvas emulation is CPU-intensive. You’ll need a mid-range or better desktop-class CPU from the last 5–7 years for glitch-free playback. If your system struggles, FluidSynth with a good SoundFont is a lighter alternative.

Emulating SC-55mk2 is much more CPU-intensive than emulating the original SC-55 revision. The good news is that SC-55 v1.21 is the overall best version to use for most games — you’ll rarely need to use the SC-55mk2.

Tip

You can switch between Sound Canvas models on the fly by changing the soundcanvas_model setting — no restart needed.

For a hands-on walkthrough of setting up Sound Canvas emulation with a specific game, see the Star Wars: Dark Forces chapter of the Getting Started guide.

Listing the available models

Run the MIXER /LISTMIDI command to see the list of available Sound Canvas models:

If the Sound Canvas is active, the selected model is highlighted.

Choosing a Sound Canvas model

The SC-55 went through several firmware revisions. The most important difference is Capital Tone Fallback (CTF) — a Roland GS feature that ensures correct instrument playback when a game requests a GS “variation tone” that isn’t available on the module. Without CTF, the module may play silence or the wrong instrument. Many DOS games rely on CTF for correct audio, particularly for percussion and instrument variations.

Due to a patent dispute with Yamaha, Roland was forced to remove CTF from later firmware revisions. This makes the choice of firmware version significant for DOS gaming.

DOSBox Staging emulates the following Sound Canvas firmware versions:

Model	Version	soundcanvas_model	CTF	Notes
SC-55	v1.00	sc55_100	Yes	First release; some instrument mapping bugs
SC-55	v1.10	sc55_110	Yes	Bug fixes
SC-55	v1.20	sc55_120	Yes	Corrected instrument 122; GS reset
SC-55	v1.21	sc55_121	Yes	Fixed NRPN processing bugs; still has CTF support — overall best version
SC-55	v2.00	sc55_200	No	CTF removed (Yamaha patent dispute)
SC-55mk2	v1.00	sc55mk2_100	No	28 voices, 354 sounds; no CTF
SC-55mk2	v1.01	sc55mk2_101	No	Minor revisions

The SC-55 v1.21 is the best overall choice for DOS gaming. It has Capital Tone Fallback (CTF) and addresses most issues present in earlier revisions. DOSBox Staging’s soundcanvas_model = auto prefers v1.21 when its ROM is available. Avoid v2.00 and the mk2 models for games that rely on CTF.

The SC-55mk2 has higher polyphony, but its voice-allocation rules are different from those of the original module. As a result, some games composed for the original SC-55 can cut notes off earlier on the mk2 (for example, Settlers II). Very few games make meaningful use of the additional polyphony, and the differences are usually subtle unless you know what to listen for. The mk2 is also more CPU-intensive to emulate, so the SC-55 v1.21 is generally the better choice.

Games that require Capital Tone Fallback (CTF) for correct audio

These games use GS variation tones that depend on CTF. On SC-55 v2.00 or Mk II firmware (which lack CTF), certain instruments or percussion will sound incorrect or be silent.

• Blood (1997)
• Duke Nukem 3D (1996)
• Dune II (1992)
• Elder Scrolls: Arena, The (1994)
• Extreme Assault (1997)
• Hexen (1995)
• Might and Magic IV (1992)
• Might and Magic V (1993)
• Shadow Warrior (1997)
• WarCraft II (1995)

Mixer channel

Sound Canvas outputs to the SOUNDCANVAS mixer channel.

Legal notes

Important

By providing an easy-to-use Roland Sound Canvas emulation feature, we aim to preserve an important part of DOS gaming history for all to freely enjoy for posterity. The feature is only intended for personal use (e.g., retro gaming, or writing music as a hobby) and research purposes.

The Roland Sound Canvas ROM images are copyrighted by Roland Corporation, therefore they cannot be bundled with DOSBox.

As per the original Nuked SC-55 license, the use of the feature is strictly prohibited for creating commercial Roland Sound Canvas emulation hardware boxes or for use in commercial music production.

Moreover, you are not allowed to include the bundled Nuked-SC55.clap plugin in any commercial software package without both Roland’s and nukeykt’s express permissions. If you delete the plugin from your commercial package, you’re fine — DOSBox Staging will continue to work, just without Sound Canvas support.

License notes

Please see this detailed description on how we bridged the license incompatibility between DOSBox Staging and Nuked-SC55 while fully complying with both the GPL v2 and the MAME license and respecting nukeykt’s wishes.

Configuration settings

Sound Canvas settings are to be configured in the [soundcanvas] section.

soundcanvas_model

Roland Sound Canvas model to use. One or more CLAP audio plugins that implement the supported Sound Canvas models must be present in the plugins folder in your DOSBox installation or configuration folder.

Possible values:

• auto default – Pick the best available model.
• sc55 – Pick the best available original SC-55 model.
• sc55mk2 – Pick the best available SC-55mk2 model.
• <version> – Use the exact specified model version (e.g., sc55_121).

soundcanvas_rom_dir

The folder containing the Roland Sound Canvas ROMs (unset by default). The folder can be absolute or relative, or leave it unset to use the soundcanvas-roms folder in your DOSBox configuration folder. Other common system locations will be checked as well.

soundcanvas_filter

Filter for the Roland Sound Canvas audio output.

Possible values:

• on default – Filter the output. This applies a 1^st order low-pass filter at 11 kHz (lpf 1 11000).
• off – Don’t filter the output.
• <custom> – Custom filter definition; see Custom filter settings for details.